Time to start thinking about college

[oped]

I might have been ok not staying for day two   But she seemed to want me to... so I will. 

She’s my ultra independent one, but seems to be feeling the oh my im leaving really, the last few weeks... 

currently on hold with son’s financial aid office...

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

ODS -- a second semester junior -- is soiling the nest at the moment.  

[Deleted]

DS got accepted to Huntsville with a 15K/year scholarship.  Not sure that's going to be enough though.  We'll have to wait to see what happens with the need based aid.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Aug 20, 2019 8:10:18 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

DS got accepted to Huntsville with a 15K/year scholarship.  Not sure that's going to be enough though.  We'll have to wait to see what happens with the need based aid.

Sweet!!! Wow — it’s only August: ED or EA?

🤞on the financial aid. Is your DS the kiddo who attends a high school that awards a scholarship to every graduate or is that Gira?

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2019 8:28:14 GMT -5 GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl said:

Aug 20, 2019 8:10:18 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

DS got accepted to Huntsville with a 15K/year scholarship.  Not sure that's going to be enough though.  We'll have to wait to see what happens with the need based aid.

Sweet!!! Wow — it’s only August: ED or EA?

🤞on the financial aid. Is your DS the kiddo who attends a high school that awards a scholarship to every graduate or is that Gira?

They have rolling admissions and opened for Fall 2020 in July, he doesn't have to decide until May 1st.

He will get a scholarship from the high school as well, but no clue what that will be.  It's based on GPA, ACT, and participation in extracurriculars at the HS as well as the size of the class and the endowment amount for the year.  I've heard it's usually between 1-3K for 4 years.   I think he finds out in March what his award is.  

[giramomma]

Aug 16, 2019 12:41:59 GMT -5 oped said:

Daughter leaves Tuesday. I got a room but they only had king bed rooms available. Move in on a Tue Wed was weird I thought, and parent activities are both days... what do parents that work do? 

Also her finals ‘week’ goes over a weekend so isn’t over till Wednesday meaning also mid week pick up... 

Son is home a few more weeks then does a 2 week intensive in Japan before fall term starts. 

Then empty nest pretty much.

Take vacation. That's what my dad did on move in days.

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2019 12:35:23 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Aug 16, 2019 12:41:59 GMT -5 oped said:

Daughter leaves Tuesday. I got a room but they only had king bed rooms available. Move in on a Tue Wed was weird I thought, and parent activities are both days... what do parents that work do? 

Also her finals ‘week’ goes over a weekend so isn’t over till Wednesday meaning also mid week pick up... 

Son is home a few more weeks then does a 2 week intensive in Japan before fall term starts. 

Then empty nest pretty much.

Take vacation. That's what my dad did on move in days.

Yep.  No different than what I have to do for any pre-college kid stuff too.  I'd say well over half my vacation days are used for kid related things.   Next month I'm taking a day for Carrot because our school thought it would be neat to just have it be a one hour orientation instead of a regular day and all the Summer care programs besides after school care are done.  Then in October I'll be taking a couple days over MEA to take older son to visit schools.  

I'm not going to know what to do with my days off once the kids are gone! 

[sheilaincali]

The Boy is 12 hours away from us so we have to take vacation any time we see him.

We have taken off 2 or 3 days every time we move the Boy back to college. Freshmen move in was on a Saturday but we went down early to visit family. Every other year we pay a $15 per day early move in fee to move him in when it's more convenient for us. Typically Freshmen are Saturday/Sunday and Sophomores and up are supposed to move in mid week after the Freshman. We always paid $60 to $90 to move him in early (usually Friday before the Freshmen get there).

Now he's completely off campus and has been living there since May. 

[cyanne]

Aug 20, 2019 15:16:06 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Aug 20, 2019 12:35:23 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Take vacation. That's what my dad did on move in days.

Yep.  No different than what I have to do for any pre-college kid stuff too.  I'd say well over half my vacation days are used for kid related things.   Next month I'm taking a day for Carrot because our school thought it would be neat to just have it be a one hour orientation instead of a regular day and all the Summer care programs besides after school care are done.  Then in October I'll be taking a couple days over MEA to take older son to visit schools.  

I'm not going to know what to do with my days off once the kids are gone! 

You may be able to take time off for school activities without touching your vacation time. It won't help for your older son going to college but it may help with Carrot's school stuff.

www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.9412

[Works4me]

Sheilaincali - how does he like off campus living?

[Deleted]

Aug 20, 2019 17:35:33 GMT -5 cyanne said:

Aug 20, 2019 15:16:06 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Yep.  No different than what I have to do for any pre-college kid stuff too.  I'd say well over half my vacation days are used for kid related things.   Next month I'm taking a day for Carrot because our school thought it would be neat to just have it be a one hour orientation instead of a regular day and all the Summer care programs besides after school care are done.  Then in October I'll be taking a couple days over MEA to take older son to visit schools.  

I'm not going to know what to do with my days off once the kids are gone! 

You may be able to take time off for school activities without touching your vacation time. It won't help for your older son going to college but it may help with Carrot's school stuff.

www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.9412

Most of the time I have to take off during the school year for kids is not stuff that would be covered by this.  It's more like, kid gets sent home with an ear ache or schools close for weather.  There's the occasional concert or science fair which I could ask to take leave for, but my company is awesome in that they require you use up all accrued paid time before taking any unpaid leave (especially awesome to come back from maternity leave with a newborn and no paid time off), so the 16 hours of leave wouldn't do me any good unless I had no vacation.  

[bean29]

Aug 20, 2019 15:16:06 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Aug 20, 2019 12:35:23 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Take vacation. That's what my dad did on move in days.

Yep.  No different than what I have to do for any pre-college kid stuff too.  I'd say well over half my vacation days are used for kid related things.   Next month I'm taking a day for Carrot because our school thought it would be neat to just have it be a one hour orientation instead of a regular day and all the Summer care programs besides after school care are done.  Then in October I'll be taking a couple days over MEA to take older son to visit schools.  

I'm not going to know what to do with my days off once the kids are gone! 

DD volunteered to be a guide/help people with Move in. In return, she was allowed to move in early. Moving in on the “official” move in day is a nightmare traffic wise. DD was only in Dorm 1st year.

[bean29]

Aug 20, 2019 17:35:33 GMT -5 cyanne said:

Aug 20, 2019 15:16:06 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Yep.  No different than what I have to do for any pre-college kid stuff too.  I'd say well over half my vacation days are used for kid related things.   Next month I'm taking a day for Carrot because our school thought it would be neat to just have it be a one hour orientation instead of a regular day and all the Summer care programs besides after school care are done.  Then in October I'll be taking a couple days over MEA to take older son to visit schools.  

I'm not going to know what to do with my days off once the kids are gone! 

You may be able to take time off for school activities without touching your vacation time. It won't help for your older son going to college but it may help with Carrot's school stuff.

www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.9412

I wonder if WI has a law like that-I had a boss years ago that forced me to miss Open House, after my regular work hours B/C we were on mandatory OT.

[sheilaincali]

Aug 20, 2019 17:44:22 GMT -5 Works4me said:

Sheilaincali - how does he like off campus living?

So far he loves it. He's sharing a two bedroom, two bath apartment with a kind named JC. He is also a Computer Engineering student. He's hoping to stay in the same apartment through grad school. He likes being away from the drama of campus. His bestie signed up to be in a 5 person house on campus. 5 guys, 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. No thanks. A week in and his bestie is already regretting his decision.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

YDS was too busy yesterday, so today he sent me a “Second Day of 16th Grade” pic. 😂

[Deleted]

DS has acceptances at 3 of the 5 schools he applied to so far.  The 4th one said they sent him a letter on Thursday.  He was pretty WTH?!?  about that one.  LOL  He's like, "Why didn't they put their decision in the tracker or send me an email telling me?!?!"  So, he gets to go wait by the mailbox just like the good old days. 

[Deleted]

He finally got his letter!  Direct admit into the Chem E major as well, so that was nice.  Only the flagship left to wait on which might take awhile.  He doesn't care so much anymore now anyhow since he has several really good options.  Really it's just down to the financial aid packages now. 

[tractor]

It’s a nice feeling for everyone involved when the final decision is made and you no longer have to wonder what’s going to happen in the next 3-4 months. Congratulations to your son, it sounds like he has it figured out and is well ahead of many of his peers.

[Deleted]

I think he's still a ways from a final decision because he's only visited one school so far.  We're going to check out two other ones over Fall break next month and that will either help make the decision easier or stress him out even more.  Right now he's convinced the one he's visited is the best place for him, even though it doesn't have the major he's most interested in.

[oped]

Most schools will have accepted student days which will give a concentrated picture of campus and academic life.

[oped]

FAFSA ASAP in October.

[Deleted]

Sept 12, 2019 10:57:56 GMT -5 oped said:

FAFSA ASAP in October.

Yep.  There are some scholarships with Nov. 1st deadlines as well.  It's crazy how early some of this stuff is.

[oped]

I can’t file till October. But as much fuss as sons school made about getting it done ASAP they didn’t send this year updates till  summer, so I’m not sweating it this year. As an ingoing freshman though it’s nice to be early! 

[oped]

That is so weird. As soon as I posted that I check my email and got the return I need to be able to file (it’s usually last minute) so I guess I can file any time now

[Deleted]

We were told there are some need-based scholarships and aid that is first-come first-serve and they can't do anything without the FAFSA, so to get it done ASAP.  We're doing it on the 1st! 

[giramomma]

Sept 12, 2019 10:48:23 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I think he's still a ways from a final decision because he's only visited one school so far.  We're going to check out two other ones over Fall break next month and that will either help make the decision easier or stress him out even more.  Right now he's convinced the one he's visited is the best place for him, even though it doesn't have the major he's most interested in.

I think that's OK though.

My sophomore year I had some sort of YM crisis and I decided to really change my path. I actually moved from the college of L&S to the school of business, which required a whole new application to the school of business when my general studies were done.

This was a very organic decision on my end. And one, that I think no one, including myself would have ever predicted.

I think everything still turned out just fine because I picked a school that fit me, and is overall a very good school.

I know it's possible to transfer schools and all that. But I think that's a PITA.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I hold no illusions of him picking a major a year prior to starting and sticking with it.  I mainly am concerned the school has lots of options for him to change into.  Liking the place and being comfortable on campus are more important.  The two schools we're checking out in October (Twin Cities and ISU) are huge in comparison to the one he "loves", so it should be interesting. 

[TheOtherMe]

DN3 is a kid who should have done the gap year because he had no idea of what he wanted out of college.  

His friends were all going to college, he was accepted at Iowa State and he went.  He didn't work hard on his studies because none of mattered to him.  As a result, the grades were not so good.  

In the second year, he realized he wanted to be a teacher and the best college in Iowa was University of Northern Iowa, so he transferred there.  However, mostly because of his grades, most of his credits didn't transfer.  It was like starting over.  So it took him 6 1/2 years to finish college.  The last semester was student teaching only.  

He's got a ton of student loans to show for it and now agrees he should have taken a year off, maybe two years.  

The other two nephews were very goal oriented and graduated early in what they started in.  

They are not all the same, but I know you know that.

[Deleted]

OMG!  He got into University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering!     I really was not expecting that.  

The worst part is DS just left for a camping trip this evening.  We knew something was going on with the application because it said there was a pending update.  Everyone said that means at midnight they post a decision.  He turned his phone off to save battery so he'd be able to check from his tent tonight and now I can't even let him know.     

[oped]

Yay!